Darkness and Light

His hand was a cool comfort against her heated skin. If she was any hotter, she was sure his skin would have blackened when it came in contact with her. She had closed her eyes, continuing to breathe for a few moments before she replied to him.

"I don't know if it was the phantom pains from the memory I dreamed about, or if it is something else entirely but I do not feel well. Feverish. My stomach feels as if it is going to explode."

Kinta finally pulled her splitting skull away from the coolness of the wall and all but crawled to the shower.

That would not be advisable, Sarrai. The Sphere's feminine voice warned. Your core temperature has risen to a critical level. You must be examined first.

She groaned lowly, stopping in mid crawl. "Examined for what purpose? It is probably a virus or something."

I-I do not think it is anything that simple, Sarrai.

The partial hesitation in the Sphere's voice caused her instincts to come to full alert.

"What must I do?"

You must meditate while I examine you.

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.

Saad groaned weakly as the cast a confused scowl at the dim lights of the sphere's processor. He did not waste any time though, and scooped Kinta's still naked body into his arms and stood up, exiting the refresher.

"Hold on, nuyak nulis." He comforted as he strode as gently as possible around the pillar and barrier to the meditation circle.

He slowly lowered her down into a sitting position in front of where he was now crouched. His head tilted upward as he backed away from her and out of the clearly defined circle and watched a red light flicker on above. This was just a basic preliminary bioscan, and would take less than a minute.

His mind stormed within, though.

What aren't you telling me?

He asked the sphere, and received no response. To the failure of her response, the upper left corner of Saad's lip began to twitch and spasm while rage began to seep under his skin.

He was helpless to wait, though. He wouldn't be able to fix this unless he knew what it was, and the sphere was the only way of knowing what it was. This anger festered and concentrated within him as the sphere continued to ignore the quest, though.

The voice of the Sphere remained silent to it's Masters pleas. She knew he was growing to care for Kinta a great deal, but his urgency was not going to push such matters faster. This would be a delicate process, one that would take perhaps a half hour of time off of their schedule. As the bio scan drifted over the Assassin's naked form head-to-toe, the woman deepened her breathing and dropped into a semi-Force Trance. She sat with her legs crossed and her back perfectly straight even despite her lack of clothing. Her eyes were closed as she became one with the Force itself, letting go of her physical form.

There must be silence, Master. I must concentrate.

The female voice finally spoke, sensing his worry and concern. The bio scan stopped about midway, focusing on the abdominal area.

_scan complete__no foreign poisons detected__anomoly found_

The Sphere made a sound as if it was a person clearing their throat.

Scan is complete, Master. Results are on display, but it appears as if Sarrai is highly sensitive to conception. She is not ill. She has concieved.

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.

Scan is complete, Master. Results are on display, but it appears as if Sarrai is highly sensitive to conception. She is not ill. She has conceived.

"That is not possible..." He huffed as he scrambled on all fours back to the holoscreen dock.

His fingertips pinched at two sides of the screen and rotated, the holoscreen responding by twisting on an axis downward so he could see it's contents. All information across the board was beyond normal, but totally positive. His finger tapped at her abdomen on the display, and it zoomed in an enormous degree, centering a focus on the egg inside of her. A variety of statistics showing signs of activity sprang out from the holoimage of what everything he could see on the screen was saying was a fertilized egg in a rapid state of growth to the embryo stage.

With each of his four fingers he slid some of the panels of information off of the screen and with several key presses on Sith symbols, the red light began to flicker again.

"This cannot be. It is not possible, it has not even been a full day." Saad softly spoke to himself at a whisper's volume as he turned his head around to look at Kinta, who was still deep within a tranced state.

That is not exactly accurate, Master

Very, very incredibly slowly, Saad's head began to turn upward to the dim blue lighting, confusion and a clear amount of rage re-emerging on his face.

"What are you saying?" Saad questioned in an abnormally shallow tone.

Well...there is only one possibility that I can calculate, Master. I will gladly begin to confirm it via scan after your test has finished, but I believe she is just as genetically engineered by Sith alchemy as you are, Master

The rage waned from his face, but the confusion only increased within his expression as his face slowly angled down to the floor. His mind raced, rapidly trying to consider, to accuse, someone of being capable of such a thing, but could not. When the people that became his lost tribe of Pureblood Sith decided to break off from Darth Vitiate's empire, it was the priest body of those in command that made the choice. And those priests were the finest Kissai masters in Vitiate's empire, their abilities dwarfed only by the Emperor himself. It was centuries of these priests' passed down work that saw Saad created and conceived.

If there was another in the galaxy with the combined skill of those men and women, Saad had never heard of them, not that he should have being out in unknown space most of his life.

If I may offer you the possibility, Master, consider this; You are perfect. I have my own self known this for a decade after your encounter with the Yuuzhan Vong. While monitoring over your recovery, I scanned you many times with many fields of tests, and all conclude a single fact; Every molecule of your body is perfect, including the scar tissue. I have never had the reason to test such a thing, but I urge you to consider that if every single molecule of your body is perfect, would your reproductive system not also be perfect?

He shook his head, blinking a few times while he did consider this, but still didn't quite understand what she was getting at.

"What does that have to do with an-" He began to get out before the sphere interrupted him.

Analysis of genetic material complete. Displaying

His eyes shot up to the holoscreen, and displayed on it were previous and current dna strand samples of both he and Kinta along with a picture of each on either side of the display of her abdomen. This removed all possibility of doubt. She was pregnant, and Kozan did it, not even 24 hours later.

I do not think it prudent to explain how conception is achieved, Master. I am quite sure you already know the process.

The Sphere replied, matter-of-factly and yet seemed to almost be mocking.

You may awaken, Sarrai.

Kinta pulled herself back into focus, her eyes slowly opening. Her head tilted, turning towards the screen that displayed her results to the right of her. Upon reading it, her heart seemed to stop.

"What?! She exclaimed, rapidly crawling on all fours towards the holo. She knelt before it, fingers deftly moving over the screen as she poured through ever single piece of information. "Impossible. Past examinations proclaimed I was infertile."

Perhaps regular examinations, Sarrai. My data does not lie.

Her gaze shot up to the ceiling before being pulled back to the results.

You and Kozan are not born entities. You were both created, genetically and alchemically to be perfect. It would appear that your reproductive systems were compatible enough to reproduce and quite swiftly I might add.

"You lost me at genetically and alchemically created."

The Sphere snorted faintly.

I have done some extensive scans on your DNA, Sarrai. You have quite the complex combination. There is Pureblood Sith in your DNA as well as two others I have been unable to identify.[/color][/color]

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.

"Noghri. Part of you is Noghri. It is the only explanation for my vision leading us Honoghr." Saad stated flatly as he continued to examine the data on the screen.

He began tapping on multiple symbols, and a few seconds later, the screen Kinta was looking at held up a strain of her DNA, as well as Saad's own DNA. After a stream of data rolled down from the top of the screen, it successfully matched genetic sequences indicating Sith descent. Saad's hands flew into a flurry of activity once more, and the screen to her right went blank, and then pulled up her DNA once again, and then what appeared to be unknown DNA.

Saad's own head tilted back as he turned around to view the same screen Kinta was while the data once more scrolled down the screen, and then once more, a sequence match. Saad's strain came up again, cut away the key portions of the sequence and matched it together to form 2/3 of Kinta's DNA strand. He hummed a noted in thought, but did not turn back to the terminal.

"Not how I expected to reveal to you your past, nuyak nulis." He remarked solemnly.

For the first time in her life, she felt conflicted. Love, happiness, elation. These were emotions she had never believed in, never thought she would experience. And yet as she sat on the floor of the Sphere, combing over data discovered by the Sphere itself and Saad, she would not help but feel them. With those emotions came the overwhelming need to protect both what was hers and what she cared deeply for. Kinta knew nothing about caring for children just as she knew Kozan did not. They both had a harsh up-bringing. Slavery being the forefront, abuse, neglect. And that was not something she wanted for her own offspring. Though she had come to accept the fact that she would never be able to reproduce, this new development would take a bit of time to adjust, for the both of them.

"Like you, I know nothing of children, Taral." She spoke after a few semi-tense moments of silence. "But we can try if that is what you wish. They will never know what it is like to be under the slavers whip. Not as long as I live."

It would seem the fierce Noghri instincts are taking hold.

Her brow frowned for a moment but was smoothed away when Kozan pressed a kiss against her forehead. She signed softly, leaning into him. "I do not think I am entirely sure I know who the Noghri are." She admitted, running her thumb along the curve of Saad's jawline.

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.

He himself immediately facilitated her with an answer about the Noghri.

"The Noghri are a very vicious, advanced, predatory sentient species native to the planet Honoghr. There once was a holoimage on file, but over the past millennia, it became corrupted, so even I don't know what they look like. You know as much as I do about them now." He stated matter-of-factly, but still very flat aside from the nature of the statement. Still in minor mental shock.

After a few moments, he shook his head and brought his face close to Kinta's, moved his mouth only centimeters from her ear.

"Mes valia kaer sis berniuk, iv takas. Kad wo vadinti..."We will keep this child, of course. But a name... Saad spoke softly, though still very serpentine, into Kinta's ear. He took a deep breath, and released a long sigh and said, "Mes setup minti geismano, ir tu setup cezura, Nuyak Nulis."We should think longer, and you should rest, My Love

He rubbed her left shoulder within his palm for a moment and then stood up and returned to the bed, and to the holocron. He couldn't give any more thought to the child yet, he needed to ensure a destiny for it to inherit first. But before even that, he sat down where he had been before, the holocron lazily rotating in the air in front of him, and stuck out his left hand and patted the bed beside him as he stared into Kinta's eyes.

"Tapti', tapti' ir tarnas nun su sis."Come, come and help me with this He said in Sith as softly and tenderly as he could with so many 'R' and 'S' sounds rolling and slithering from his mouth.

He never asked for help, not of anyone for anything. He gave orders, he commanded, demanded, instructed or directed, but he did not ask for help. Today he did, and he meant it. Something deep inside of him was changing, and he couldn't understand it, and wanted to fight it less with every hour, because it pulled him to her, it pulled them together.

A name. Now that was something so far fetched from her mind at the current moment. When he actually asked her to help him, she smiled. There was nothing seductive about the gesture. It was tender, loving. She reached out with her right hand, a piece of red cloth floating into her grasp. She didn't even look to see what it was. She simply shrugged into it and wrapped it around her. Though she was still feverish, her skin had begun to break out in goosebumps from the chill that ran down her spine. She moved gracefully, closing the distance between her and Saad.

"I will always help you, Taral, even if only for the asking." Kinta said softly, curling her small frame up on the bed beside him. She sat with her right leg curled beneath her, her left draped casually over Kozan's left knee. There was an intimacy that still spoke of comfort, of familiarity. She had not lied to him when she had told him she had been his from the moment she met him. He had brought her back to life, for reasons why neither of them still could fathom. She had seen him kill without remorse. What had made her so different, so special? Now, the pieces were coming together. She was like him in so many ways. A former slave, created by Alchemical means and not born.

She let her gaze wander over his face and she found herself wondering what their child would look like. Would he or she carry their father's features, or hers? Would they be strong with the Force, or deaf to it's call? Would he or she be perfect, or flawed? The last thought made her right eye twitch briefly. No, they would be perfect. It seemed to be already written in their destiny.

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.

Saad smiled, leaning slightly against her, before returning his gaze to the pyramidal object before him.

"I have already discerned a total of 60 raised glyphs across it's 4 sides, of which 48 are mostly simple circular symbols. Of those 48, 24 are accented with hooks, spines and points spreading from the outer ring of the raised circles, and the other 24 are truly flawless and perfect circles." He softly explained, consciously rotating the holocron as needed to point out the distinctions between them.

Afterward, he lifted his hand above the holocron and it spun nearly around quickly, and then stopped on a single corner showing three tribal looking symbols, also raised from the surface of the holocron. Each one looked similar to a semi-circle, though the intensity of the arc made it more oval. From just before the end of each side was the pointed tip of what looked like a long comma that jutted through the end of the semi-oval shape, which somewhat resembled a very odd 'W.'

"These each are buttons, and there is one on each side of each point, 3 to a side, 12 in total. I believe the order of these being pressed will be the final steps of opening it, but I have not attempted to interact with any of it, yet. Everything else on the surface of this holocron are etched warnings and messages from those who failed to unlock it, and they warn that Force-traps are scattered across this holocron, and each improper step, whether entirely wrong or in the wrong order, will trigger one of these traps. Lightning and push are the only mentioned traps, but I guarantee that there will be far more dangerous traps than that." He finished his, in his own opinion, long-winded explanation.

He retracted his hand and the holocron resumed it's slow rolling in the air while his other arm pulled back along his side and then swept around Kinta's back, fingers coming to rest on the side of her stomach. His hand was drawn toward his child, though he did not realize this relation to what he had done.

"Mazo, kam dary j'us minti, nuyak vina?"So, what do you thing, my dear? Saad asked, his voice much more humming than usual, especially when speaking Sith.

Kinta remained silent for some time, her gaze drifting over each symbol, each glyph. The obvious approach that almost anyone would take would be the flawless markings.

"To me it almost seems as if these flawless markings would be the more obvious path, but it appears to be too obvious. Almost as if it was intentionally drawing the eye, the mind to take the path of less danger. I would suspect that any traps may be laying in wait behind those unsuspecting glyphs." She finally said. As the holocron shifted around for its third slow rotation, she pointed out a very small imperfection among a series of symbols.

"This cluster here." She pointed to the indicated area with the nail of her right index finger, making sure she was careful not to touch the artifact directly. "Something keeps drawing my focus here. I do not know if it is a subliminal draw, or a more forward one. It could be a switch for a trap, but it doesn't feel like one."

Carefully, she reached out with the Force. She merged hers with Kozan's though it was more of an unintentional merge. It was as if it amplified each other's power, expanding it to an unpresidented level. The combined power almost became visible. It seemed to float in the air, weaving like waves of heat.

______________________________________________

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.Through passion, I gain strength.Through strength, I gain power.Through power, I gain victory.Through victory, my chains are broken.The Force shall free me.